Saturday, January 07, 2006

Just for laughs

So Hatching, Matching and Dispatching was pretty good last night. It still has a few rough spots, such as the shocking fact that Mark McKinney isn't very good in this, but I laughed several times. The "let's make sure he's dead bit", was a bit obvious, but still funny. "You'd need a tutor to make it to retarded" was a lovely zing that I will be robbing and using in the future. Most of the gay wedding stuff was pretty damn funny.

And Johnny Harris's explanation about why gay male sex must feel so good was...fascinating.

Providing they didn't top load the first episode with all the funny stuff which they could do - it's not like there's much of a plot - there is potential here. I said as much when the pilot aired. The problem was the pilot was an hour long and too much unfunny stuff weighed things down. They were throwing stuff up against the wall to see what would stick.

Which is fine on stage; a bit risky in a TV pilot where you've got to wow people or you don't get another chance to make it right.

I'll be curious to hear what the rating are. Friday night is a pretty crappy night to air the show. I wonder how many watched.

Speaking of "throwing things to see what sticks", I understand Revue '05 starts tonight. I always regretted not going to see one of the shows later in its run to what a well paced, funny Revue could be like. Opening night is always long and a very mixed bag. Still, there are some good people involved in the show so hopefully it will be good.

You know, I was chatting briefly about Newfoundland comedy with Ward Pike and I can't help but wonder if most of the really funny people still working, or trying to work, in Newfoundland are stuck in a CBC frame of mind. If you look at Rabbittown (I really don't recommend that you do, just for the record) and then look at HMD, you're going to see a lot of the same people. It's like the CODCO mafia. Or their hand-chosen successors.

I wonder if rather than hoping against hope that the CBC might pick up whatever idea they're planning, they might not do what the George Street TV guys did. I've interviewed them twice and while I might not like the humour of the show (and wonder what on God's green earth Greg Malone is doing there), I do have to admire the way they decided to get their stuff on air. It wasn't waiting and hoping the CBC would get it. It was doing something on the cheap and pitching it to NTV. And it worked. The Comedy Network has picked up George Street TV.

There's enough other funny people kicking around town: Steve Cochrane, Dave Sullivan, Petrina Bromley, Aiden Flynn, Phil Churchill and others. I don't understand why they don't try the George Street TV model. Scrounge up some cash, film something on the cheap, but funny. Then see if NTV picks it up. Or Rogers Cable.

It might work. We might get to see some fresh, Newfoundland comedy on TV. Don't get me wrong, I like HMD and think it's certainly different. But if you can't see the stamp of Mary Walsh all over that, then you're blind.

So on the off-chance any up-and-coming Newfoundland comedians are reading this, give it a shot. Don't wait for the CBC to make it, because you'll be waiting for quite awhile.